Battalion Chief - A Day in the Life

hello my name is mauricio segura and this is a day in the life of the battalion chief of south metro fire rescue fire what is the emergency coming from the roof lpd's arriving on the [Applause] let's go ahead and start the second alarm [Music] good morning chief thanks for letting me do this pretty nervous we have a really good wellness program and we're held to a pretty high physical standard we do a vo2 max which they equate out to 12 mattes and it's the whole thing that you see on tv with the mask and all that stuff and it's it's based on what your body can use the the way it uses oxygen and so there's no getting around it i was a former wrestler and yeah always have tried to stay in shape but cardio is a big deal for us and so in this job because i get pulled in so many directions the the job is really to support everybody else for me it's getting up early and getting that cardio in as early as possible get it done first thing so if i can come in early and get my workout in then during the day during your day hopefully they see that and it's a reminder for them to stay in shape as well [Music] chief we ready [Music] hey um let's see truck should be good we deployed uh brush 41 with a crew of three to grand junction i did um this bc square three radio we have are running the third on 32 right now for a while so he'll put that back what he's done but just in case no worries yeah we've been doing the same on our shift i think this is our last first day without oh nice okay and we'll get that done really that's about it i'm just gonna finish up a couple calls here okay all right i'll just wait to jump on the rig then i'll go get my stuff off so you can get on okay so i'm good thanks all right i run to all major car accidents uh fire incidents fire alarms and high rises or larger commercial structures and then essentially the higher end medicals so if it if it's cardiac arrest that kind of thing i'll show up on those as well so more of the more severe calls is generally when a battalion chief will go and we just provide that command overhead and accountability for bigger calls especially calls that are going to grow past a first alarm the goal of me being there is so that we can actually have our first in companies do the work that they're trained to do our first in officers they take command initially and we'll just use a house fire as an example but when you're actually working and being in command it's uh it's a lot to do it's multitasking and there's a lot of pressure because it's time sensitive and so the goal for us to get there is i take over from an exterior position and i can maintain safety and accountability constant reevaluation of our strategy and tactics and make sure that whatever we are doing is working and so essentially i'm there to make the tough calls like if uh if a building is looking too unsafe to search then i need to pull people out so that's really what my goal is and that's why i show up in an suv and in most cases if i'm going to be in command i won't get out of that vehicle but that's usually the goal of that it's really safety and reevaluation so check my battalion first okay so we do a the district chief has a battalion briefing and so it's all five battalion chiefs led by the dc we have the ems supervisor who has met one on our shift we have the staffing chief and we'll also have both of our training officers and so this is how we kind of plan and plan our day we start with staffing then we work ourselves through the daily events which is training and any other daily events so really the time-sensitive issues and any kind of last-minute changes and anything that needs to be communicated this is how we keep our communication as clear and concise and communicate the same message as all five battalions to our crews and then at 7 30 we have the battalion briefing so that's when we'll go get on the phone and uh we'll talk to my battalion so there you go mr baker rb3 yep nice hey your crew didn't go to big water right go away and go to the big water uh training right so uh as a bummer that hooper's not here but i still like to do it um i'd like to get you and 32s together this afternoon we'll go meet somewhere where we can flow some water i'm 34 34 what's up joe sims how's vacation i'm just happy to hear everybody's voice on this song yeah oh my gosh it's really a special thing you're the fun uncle that was fun uncle again so who we waiting on 33 schmidt what's up buddy right guys okay any uh apparatus issues anybody on reserves no is a is your brush truck back josh yep okay perfect sweet okay so the rookies moved so uh i'll be planning on going down and seeing the rookie with you guys josh at some point uh this morning got the lieutenant's practice but we've got uh three of those going on like a clearance test and then uh two lieutenants practices so watch the holes that are created i think uh 14s you guys are going down for one of those all right guys i appreciate everything and uh give me a ring if you need anything all right all right simon's making lasagna tomorrow if you want to come over oh that sounds good i'll take it all right dinner dinner tomorrow thanks okay okay it's usually about this time of day so we've got both my conference calls done we've got a game plan for the day and generally this is the first time i do see my room so i can put my stuff up here so here's the room it's really nice yeah it's one of the benefits to building new stations and getting promoted a couple times so i've got my own bathroom and i'm going to shower get ready for the rest of the day so you guys can go do something else my job today was to shadow him so i'm gonna watch him and see how he's directing people from his crew people inside the structure how they work in that low visibility situation and how the ability to really mix up the uh the i guess it's the multitasking the you know moving the hose line or doing work and not missing radio traffic because that is so vital to making sure that the incident progresses to completion uh the best way so we put our guys under a lot of scrutiny and you probably you saw during some of those uh after actions with them like you know there's a lot we we give them a lot of information that we give them strategies and techniques that have been successful for us and it's up to them to develop their style i do a lot of development and helping people along the way and when they put in the work and they get promoted and you see them coming up and yeah i mean they're going to be better than a lot of us because they're better trained than we were and it feels good this place is in great hands and just being a little bit of a part of this organization as we've grown is pretty awesome the face time matters like they have to trust me that we're on the same team and the only way to build trust is to spend time with them and so we spend time training spend time on station visits and i try to do a mix of everything when they're available i try to mix into their day and not not disrupt their day because i remember when i was coming up that when the bc stops by every no matter how informal you try to be everybody would stop and gather at the kitchen table so there are certain times i won't sit down you know if they're working out i'm not going to stop their workout i called the station today that i wanted to visit um and they were working out so we didn't stop by i was like hey man just keep doing what you're doing so but it's uh face time to build that trust over time you know that i think in one of the videos with the board he was talking about that it's so easy to break trust and at this level this is the first time that you're not on a rig with a crew and so you have to be deliberate and letting these guys know how much you care for them and the the people that we have working here my job is to get them home safe and to help them get to the next step in their career whatever that may be if they want to be a 20 year firefighter what's the next step for them showing that they have 20 years of great experience here but if they want to be a captain we saw a couple of those a captain lieutenant candidate today and it's getting that face time and giving them the support you know matching their effort and that's that's what i try to do with uh with those visits brush 42 engine 22 italian chief netcom ops3 small brushfire map page team 31b south potomac street and east riderwood avenue good becca storage facility it's approximately 20 feet from the nearest structure there's one party with a fire extinguisher trying to put it out they have multiple colors on this one stating 20 by 20. 23 copies we do have structures threatened but slow moving and kind of small at this point we'll wait until somebody gets upset that's it from sir and your wins are going to be out of the east and eighth guessing out of the east as well at 12. sorry three cubs we're on scene briarwood the fire is out um looks like a very small grass fire like i said they put it out with the garden hose we're gonna go ahead and mop it up i'll go ahead and take command in the offensive strategy now i'm seeing fires out very small brush engine 41 engine 33 brush 17 brush 43 medic 36 tinder 34 italian chief 3 safety 35 love one rehab 12 brush fire channel channel 5. commandment come engine 44 i know you're i sucked yeah and see if you can get down to those apartments 24 okay would you like us to update mapping to the access point from the apartments for incoming units i need one unit on the highway to take the fire on the slope and the other units level one stage in the parking lot for the grocery store and still don't have the best access yet in douglas county now we're getting lots of callers from the apartment complex we're gonna have them start evacuating their complex for that fresh 39 commands [Music] we're going for brush engines 39 for command but engine 44 is going to take this area i want you to back up and take the next command press engine 39. crush engine 39 we're to your west at these apartments is that access road that two track below you can a brush engine get down at copy i'll take division alpha at the top of the hill here and uh like i said just give me one type one for now i think we can defend this position i'm in the area where you've got the alpha division cruise just be aware that the firing is underneath the power line we'll just go ahead and wait until we get a crew we're getting a rig here that has some tools for us but i like what he's doing these guys got it from here and then we'll just start to stop stop it from going grab the can and hit this up over here or yeah go grab your can yeah yep yep i guess i'll get dressed got it um appreciate it i can still use brush truck up on this division just for mopping up they got more fire down there so that's gonna be the priority and so right now just mop up what you can don't wear yourself if we need to fill your brush truck or whatever so you let me know what needs you have down in here yeah we won't be long [Applause] really our biggest risk for life safety and values at risk was this apartment complex behind us so i had great eyes to see if we got any kind of extension from the trees uh into that and so we were watching everything light off and we just were waiting for suppression units the way that that helps command is especially it's so it's really based on size complexity and duration of an event okay and this one was kind of size places that he couldn't see uh the duration we don't know how long these are gonna burn especially if they do get into something and so really your span of control maxes out around five to seven okay five plus or minus two it's what they say for a span of control so that many units and knowing that we were gonna have a full alarm plus some i was just giving him an opportunity to give me some of those units in an area that he couldn't see that would reduce radio traffic and i could control this so essentially i'm a command in a certain area so essentially what you see behind me was my alpha division and i was just making sure that everybody was safe that everybody was working in the black and working the flanks appropriately and that we we're going to get close to the actual values of risk so that's really the goal the goal is to cut down on the span of control so the command isn't overwhelmed and any radio we're going in to see a captain candidate and we put our guys through the grinder and when they complete it they've done something above and beyond they stick their necks out for the department because you know not everybody has the capabilities or wants to promote or wants the spotlight so you're choosing to put the spotlight on you and you know uh you saw a little bit of that this morning when we were working with that lieutenant candidate it doesn't stop at any level with this department so well right now i have a system it's a buckeye system they're eights but you know it's like the ohio state buckeyes so it's a helmet sticker just for recognizing efforts that are above and beyond the job description and you know attitude and effort in this job to me is everything uh we can work on everything else but you got the right attitude and you put in that kind of effort you got to recognize it and it's a it's an easy way to say good job you know without getting too mushy medical response so we sat around talking every now and again i think i think they do it to me on purpose we just sit there and chew the bat and kind of war stories and kind of break into rookie try to get him to open up a little bit so we get to know who he is and then the process of that the truck and the medic got a call and left me with the dishes so i'm cleaning up the dishes telling you you'll see me clean the toilet a little bit later too so yeah yeah we still get to do dishes and like i said i think sometimes most of the time they're really good about it but i think sometimes it's a game i think they actually planned this kind of stuff i think it is it's pretty common that we get calls after dinner so let's tell you this isn't the first time that i've had to do this but i'll do it willingly fire department's uh different than the private sector i came from the private sector knowing that i wanted to be in management or company officer at an older age i had a plan i wasn't quite sure i wanted to be a battalion chief and i think the closer you get to it the more that that decision-making and self-doubt come in super competitive so at this department you first have to go through at least at that at the time i went on you had to be on five years and then you could test for lieutenant and so i had been a firefighter for eight years tested for lieutenant was able to promote to lieutenant and then the next step is another development process another task book essentially we have at each level so task book for lieutenant then i did a captain's task book did that and so that was around eight years eight and a half years of being a company officer and then at that point i did my battalion chief a task book and so i was fortunate to only have tested at each level one time did really well on all three of those oh the most challenging part of the job the the the thing that is a cage match is time management because you have five crews and administration and that sort of thing pulling you in a lot of directions and um you know making time for all of it and trying to really put that kind of effort is a serious challenge along with that is really any personnel issues that's that's the hard part because the whole piece of this job like the running calls is fun we got to do a little bit of that today luckily we didn't have any closed door meetings with people that you know needed some redirection or some coaching up and that with time management and that's the hardest part of this job getting to this position is it's a lot of work it's a lot of work it's a lot of responsibility and you know realize that it's not about you either like the higher up you go it's less and less about you and more and more about making sure they have what they need like i said it's whether you want to be a 20-year firefighter or you want to be the chief of the department it's my job to give you as much as i can to help you get there and that's tough conversations at times yeah i can i'll give you the concern for criticism but i'll also i'll pat you on the back when you're doing the right things too and and patience yeah you don't get here overnight and so this battalion chief position is changing and i'm just part of this new evolution of it and i hope i'm doing it right man like i really do [Music] good morning um so last night didn't get any calls so i kind of said that that may happen or may not happen but the job of the battalion chief never stops so around 11 30 we had a tower that had mechanical issues and they had to give me a call and we had to figure out a reserve situation and they had to do a change over last night and so when i was talking a little bit about those administrative pieces that's one of those things that uh any and all hours of the night and usually when you get a call like that in the middle of the night you hope it's not bad news like an accident or anything like that but that's what we do we handle all of those issues and do what we can once again it's supporting the guys like finding where the closest reserve unit was and and making a plan to get them back in service as quickly as possible and we're here for 48 hours and so sometimes that happens at inconvenient hours and we're lucky it wasn't three in the morning but uh 11 o'clock so that's got a little less sleep because of that but in general slept through the night we had a couple calls out of this station probably saw the medic go on a medical or two and then day two starts for us so i'll get on the treadmill here in a little bit on the stretch get on the treadmill and then we have another district chief conference call with the battalion chiefs this morning at 7 30. and that one is kind of planned the day just like yesterday but we do a little bit of operational work as well we watch some videos one of the chiefs would leave the discussion and so once again keeping us all on the same page tactically and administratively our district chief does a really good job it's a lot of teamwork at that level to make sure that the boots on the ground can really serve the citizens and so i appreciate you guys following me today and i hope this was uh fun and educational if you haven't subscribed to our channel and you liked what you saw please subscribe you

Channel: South Metro Fire Rescue - Centennial, Colorado

Views: 435,538

Rating: 4.9400153 out of 5

Keywords: SMFR, South Metro Fire Rescue, Fire Chief, Battalion Chief, Leadership, management, training, mentor, education, firefighter, ride along, day in the life, what's inside, Colorado, Castle Pines, Centennial, Highlands Ranch, Littleton, Denver, aurora, Greenwood Village, response video, code 3, Mauricio, Maury, Segura, interview, career, job, public safety, emergency, emt, brush fire, wildland fire, incident command, division supervisor, community

Id: 59m8_RYF56g

Length: 25min 20sec (1520 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 21 2020